Towards an alternative approach to safety in construction

Many safety-critical industries are moving away from compliance-based safety measures and looking for solutions incorporating adaptability and resilience. However, there are significant challenges when considering applying such measures to construction. The unique design of projects prevents the development of transferable experience, and the use of subcontracting limits opportunities for long-term investment in workers. This paper contrasts the traits of resilient organisations with the characteristics of the construction industry. It is proposed that construction could become more resilient by incorporating employee-level – as opposed organisation-level – aspects of the ‘Adaptive’ age of safety. Further research is needed to understand how the psychological factors believed to underpin a resilient response to risk can be developed

Applying HRO and resilience engineering to construction: Barriers and opportunities

High reliability organising (HRO) and resilience engineering (RE) have emerged as key concepts in safety management which promise a move away from bureaucracy and a means to manage safety without sacrificing performance. However, attempts to apply these ideas outside the ultra-safe sectors within which they developed have so far been limited. This paper uses the construction industry as a test case to explore the applicability of HRO and RE in a less highly regulated context. Through this discussion the research gaps are highlighted which have prevented the expansion of these new approaches into new sectors. The project-based nature, transient workforce, widespread outsourcing of labour and financial pressure of the construction sector limit opportunities for investment in employees and learning from experience; hence, developing principles advocated by HRO and RE such as management commitment, sensitivity to the frontline, prioritisation of safety, empowerment of employees, and a just culture presents a significant challenge. In spite of these barriers, there are also opportunities to be considered for construction to incorporate aspects of HRO and RE at an employee-centred level rather than organisational: Aspects of mindfulness and imagination; RE’s progressive understanding of accidents; and its holistic approach to cultivating resilience. It is argued that these opportunities offer a useful perspective for reframing safety debates in construction. The paper concludes with a research agenda which puts forward the need to extend and adapt aspects of HRO and RE in order to tackle some of the key characteristics of construction, namely subcontractor networks and temporary projects

Comparing safety intelligence in air traffic management and construction: A conceptual comparison

Although safety interventions targeted at managers or supervisors are believed to be the most effective leverage for change, the mechanisms involved in developing and propagating a positive safety culture are poorly understood. “Safety Intelligence” was first proposed by Kirwan in 2008 as a response to growing disillusionment with safety culture, focusing on recruiting and equipping leaders with the personal attributes, skills, and knowledge required to positively influence safety in their organizations. So far Safety Intelligence has only been studied within air traffic management, but opening up the construct and exploring its relevance to managing complex and hazardous construction projects offers new theoretical directions for occupational safety and health research in the sector. Existing studies of safety-related leadership competences in the US, UK, Australian, and Danish construction industries were reviewed in light of the Safety Intelligence model. These studies have explored specific competences including knowledge; communication; leadership style; emotional intelligence; and emotional expression. By comparing these competences with those of Safety Intelligent leaders within the ultra-safe, highly reliable environment of air traffic management, the differences between the leadership styles required to cope with the differing priorities of the two sectors were highlighted. Safety Intelligent supervisors promote a just culture, empowerment and collaboration with members, proactivity, and communication – aspects of leadership which are difficult to achieve, but have nonetheless been shown to contribute to safe construction. Safety intelligence therefore holds considerable promise for improving safety in construction projects

Beyond ConCA: Rethinking causality and construction accidents

The construction industry takes an orthodox approach to safety: Finding root causes, quantifying risk, and often blaming frontline workers. However, safety has reached a plateau and the limitations of this approach are starting to be acknowledged. A sociotechnical systems approach (as applied in the ConCA model) presents new opportunities to understand accident causation by linking immediate accident circumstances with the distal shaping and originating influences. 32 construction safety managers, consultants, and experts contributed their views regarding the hazards of construction (both human and physical) and the difficulties managing these. The findings provide an insight into the work of construction safety managers and their decision making which is influenced by industry-wide pressures and worker attributes over physical hazards. Construction suffers from a wide range of pressures; a combination of both top-down, from the client, and bottom-up challenges from the workforce it attracts. The original ConCA model has been revised to reflect the findings. By applying systems thinking, the relationships between negative perceptions of workers’ risk-taking and these challenges can be crystallised. The results support integrating safety into primary activities to increase engagement, learning legacies to transfer knowledge between projects, multi-disciplinary teams to raise risk awareness, empowerment to combat their feelings of dissatisfaction and disloyalty, and collaboration in risk management to incorporate workers’ expertise and ensure they feel valued

A review of behavioural research on data security

Protection of confidential information or data from being leaked to the public is a growing concern among organisations and individuals. This paper presents the results of the search for literature on behavioural and security aspects of data protection. The topics covered by this review include a summary of the changes brought about by the EU GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). It covers human and behavioural aspects of data protection, security and data breach or loss (threats), IT architectures to protect data (prevention), managing data breaches (mitigation), risk assessment and data protection audits. A distinction is made between threats and prevention from within an organisation and from the outside

Training activities to implement the data protection reform - Collection of material on behavioural and security module

Protection of confidential data from being leaked to the public is a growing concern among organisations and individuals. This WP4 document presents the results of the search for literature on behavioural and security aspects of data protection. It will form the source material for teaching on this subject. The topics covered by this review include a summary of the changes brought about by the new GDPR, human and behavioural aspects of data protection, security and data breach or loss (threats), IT architectures to protect data (prevention), managing data breaches (mitigation), risk assessment and data protection audits. A distinction is made between threats and prevention from within an organisation and from the outside